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In the past few years, there have been great strides in the development of technology for driverless vehicles. However, research into consumer perceptions of this technology has lagged behind the technology itself. A few reports have indicated that age and gender might have effects on consumers’ willingness to ride in driverless vehicles; however, to date, none of these studies has sufficiently explained why these effects occur. The current study seeks to address this gap with a causal mediation model using various scales and emotional responses as potential mediators.

In three studies, participants were presented with two hypothetical scenarios about riding in a driverless ambulance or car. They responded to five previously validated scales and provided six emotional responses to the scenarios. These 11 potential mediators were tested in order to develop a causal model.

The data …